Obligations, Hesitations
by kismet-wayfinder
Summary: Oneshot. Duke/Serenity. Her sight failing again, she calls him - not her husband. Life always has a way of getting in the way of things.


**I don't own Yugi-Oh  


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Serenity was sat on a stool before a bureau and mirror, with her palms facing upward, the back of her hands resting against her knees. Her head hung downward as tears escaped from her eyes and trickled down the sides of her face, she gave a small whimper as the tears caused her vision to blur. "Pretty soon I'll be grateful to even see _this_ well, I suppose."

Feeling a hand at her shoulder, the long-haired brunette sister of Joey Wheeler turned her head slightly to the side, though she closed her eyes while doing so, still crying. "I'm sorry…"

"What are you sorry for?" Lowering his chin until it rested atop Serenity's head, a green-eyed young man with jet black hair brought an arm around her waist from behind, letting his hand rest across her middle. "You've done nothing wrong."

Bringing both her hands to her face as she let her sobs grow louder and more out of control, the brunette young woman shrugged her shoulders. "Because I'm so wrecked that my body can't even accept the surgeries it's had. And because I bothered you - made you come out of your way for nothing! That's what I'm sorry for!"

"It's hardly for nothing that I came out here, Serenity - you're scared."

Lowering her hands from her face so that she could glance back at her reflection again, Serenity watched the image of Duke Devlin and herself together, one of his arms snugly kept around her waist - the other hand now stroking up and down her shoulder and forearm. It was a sight she never wanted to lose.

"Yes, I am scared," she admitted in a whispered voice. "But I have Tristan to look after me. He does look after me, you know? He works two jobs to take care of everything - the past three hospitalizations haven't been good on our bank account…"

Sighing quietly, Duke lifted a hand to Serenity's hair, before running his long fingers through it in downward strokes. "Tristan is your husband," he said simply, before planting a kiss atop her hair. "So Tristan _does_ indeed take care of you. He pays for everything and, with the help of your brother and other friends, you are taken care of. They are there for you always and yet…"

Pausing to take a breath, before swallowing back a strange lump in his throat, Duke moved his other arm so that it, too, was locked around Serenity's waist. "And yet you called _me_ when you were told by the doctor that your eye sight would be doomed to fail, even after all this time - so many years after your first operation. You called and told me, and asked me to come here. Me. Not your husband, not your brother, not your other friends."

"Look, I'm sorry," Serenity said again, shaking her head slightly. "I know you have a business to run back where you live now, and you probably have a girlfriend or something. I know I haven't seen you in forever and then, one day, I just called you with this - and I'm sure it's ridiculous of me…"

Standing up straight, Duke moved his hands to rest them at Serenity's shoulders, before squeezing her there. "The only thing ridiculous here is that you keep apologizing when there's nothing to be sorry for."

"You're wrong about that," Serenity replied at once. "Even if you don't think I should be sorry for calling you now, I know for sure that I'm sorry for all that time spent away from you when I could have called you or seen you, but didn't."

Slipping his hands down her arms, before placing them at her sides and lifting upward, gently guiding her to stand from her chair, Duke then stepped around to the side of the chair, before taking hold of Serenity's hand. Squeezing it back, she said to him, "Really, I was so wrapped up in how much it hurt every time I saw you that I… just… stopped trying to see you. But I could've called you, or written you, at least."

"You could have called or something," he agreed, before turning to his side. "I could've called _you_ or something, too."

Also turning to her side, so that she was facing Duke, Serenity brought her free hand to the side of his face, letting her fingertips brush against his skin. "You were gone and busy with your, well, business, and he was here. Tristan loved me, and I care for him, too. But still, he isn't you. I know that makes me sound like a horrible person, and it probably leant me the bad karma to end up with my eye degeneration-"

"No," Duke said, interrupting her in a firm, stout voice as he placed his hand atop her's, which was still resting against his own face. "You didn't do anything to cause this - it's just an unfortunate thing, the disease coming back again."

Some space of silence met this, and then Serenity spoke again. "I'm sure you'll be leaving soon, to get back to your buisness."

"I will be, by this afternoon," Duke answered her, before squeezing at her hand. "But there's something I should tell you. Serenity, I want you to come back with me."

"What?"

"Run away with me. I know it's a long away from here, but, I'll take care of you once we get there."

"Duke, I can't possibly just up and run away. I have everyone here - my friends and family, my doctors-"

"Your husband?"

Dropping her head downward, Serenity gave a slight nod, releasing Duke's hand and moving her other one away from his face. "Yes, and my husband."

Letting his own hands fall down to his sides, Duke gave a shaky sort of sigh, before saying, "Can't blame me for trying, right?"

"Duke, I-"

"I'll see you again, and soon, Serenity. I'll be back next week."

"I'm sorry that I can't go with you, Duke. I just can't. I..."

"No, really, Serenity - I'm sorry, for asking you something like that. It was really crazy."

Without further ado, the dark-haired young man leant forward and placed a simple, chaste kiss on Serenity's lips, before turning to leave the room, calling out to her as he went, "Like I said - I'll see you next week."

Standing stalk still and quiet as he left her room and solemnly made his exit down the hall and out the front door, Serenity stared straight forward. Tears were beginning to slip down her cheeks again, moving slowly and uncomfortably downward, before curving under her chin. In the silence, she became more and more aware of the sound of the ticking clock that hung near the vanity mirror. With a sickeningly repetitive, montone click, it kept ticking and ticking away - she couldn't tune it out no matter how hard she tried.

Closing her eyes hard, she shook her head from side to side, before running out from the room herself, jetting down the hall on legs that felt like jelly, her heart pounding against her rib cage - fit to burst.

"Duke, _wait_!" she cried out, throwing open her front door as she flung herself outside; moving her head from side to side quickly, she found that he was nowhere to be seen. In the distance, however, she could see what looked like a taxicab, driving toward the direction that would lead to the local airport.

Breathing heavily as she brought a hand to clutch at the stitch in her chest, Serenity blinked back the rest of the tears that wanted to come, before saying aloud in a choked whisper, "Okay then. I'll see you next week, too. I hope."


End file.
